The present invention relates to a photographic processing apparatus for printing long strips of photographic material by processing them in multiple processing chambers, and more particularly to a photographic processing apparatus which has a guide structure including strip guide racks for guiding long strips of photographic material through in multiple processing chambers. The guide racks are variable in width according to the sizes of the long photographic strip materials.
Various photographic processing apparatus are well known to those skilled, for example, in the photographic art. Such a photographic processing apparatus generally has various chambers or sections, such as an exposing or printing section, developing section, drying section and cutting section. A long strip of photographic material such as photographic paper is withdrawn from a magazine to an exposure station in the printing section to effect exposure. After exposure, the long strip of photographic material is transported into the developing section and, then, into the drying section. Finally, the processed long strip of photographic material is cut into individual pieces, such as prints, in the cutting section.
For guiding the long strip of photographic materials into the processing section, the photographic processing apparatus is provided with a pair of strip guide racks in every processing chamber. The racks of each pair are disposed so that they face one another but are separated from each other to define the width of the strip passage. The strip guide racks are removably hung in each processing chamber and cooperate with each other so that the distance between them is changeable. As a result, the width of passage for long strips of photographic material can be varied.
Because the pairs of strip guide racks operate independently from one another the removal, installation and adjustment of the width of the plurality of strip guide racks have to be independently carried out for each chamber.